Boating season is here, yet again!
In 2016, after nine years of living in a community whose daddies had blackballed me from the very beginning - like legit before they'd even met me - I relocated to New York state and bought a boat to spend the summers on.
What a difference that move made...
My first new ABDL friend visited just weeks into my new lifestyle. At first, I was afraid to invite someone to come visit a boat - what kind of weird, f'd up situation is that? But he came, and actually seemed to really enjoy it, and what began a little awkwardly quickly turned into a brainstorming session.
"This berth would make a pretty decent crib," he pointed out. "Throw in a few stuffed animals and you could make someone feel very, very little. And just think of the padded parties you could throw on this thing..."
Thus, the 'Luvs Boat' was launched.
I started off by inviting people to visit for what I called 'boating weekends' in 2017. I took a few weekends off, invited a ton of ABDLs from all across upstate New York, and waited.
The first weekend was a washout. Only me, on the boat, all weekend.
The second weekend, too... nothing but cancellations and flakes.
(If you've ever tried to build a community in a less-populated area, I bet this sounds familiar to you).
The third weekend was just me for most of the weekend. At the very end - we're talking late Sunday evening - two ABDLs from Buffalo, two to three hours away, arrived. They came waddling down the dock bearing bottles of wine, and we sat on the forward deck, drinking and watching the sunset.
"This is magical," one of them said. "Think of the get-togethers you could have..."
(I'd been trying...)
The next 'weekend' was crazy! There were seven of us - we barely had room to sit down. I took a few group photos and posted them on my social media, and suddenly the people I'd invited who had a hard time picturing themselves diapered on a boat could vizualize what a 'padded boat party' might look like.
I had no trouble with invites after that.
Group get-togthers. Weekends with Z, a local college student and my first bona fide 'little'. Finally meeting ABDLs I'd talked to online for years but had never met. Padded movie nights... watching thunderstorms diapered abovedecks when the marina cleared out and it was just us left. It really was magical.
I'd spent years with zero local ABDL friends, so having a dozen in that first summer? I used to say that I'd met more ABDLs in three months than I'd met in nine years where I used to live. It was heaven!
Then we started taking the boat out. Until then, we'd spent our
weekends mostly belowdecks, hanging out in the 'cuddle cabin' or taking
naps in the 'crib'... sipping mixed drinks or wine in the salon...
playing games and watching movies... and, my favorite, having deep,
meaningful conversations late into the night.
Motoring out onto the water changed things. With more than 60
square miles of surface area, it was easy to find a secluded spot, strip
down to nothing but diapers and onesies, and just... be little.
If you're into boating you already know: things are different out on
the water. You find a sense of freedom that can be elusive almost
anywhere else. Being able to share it with members of our community felt
amazing, and the eventual realization that a little bit of a 'community' had formed - I can't tell you how much that meant, especially to those of us experiencing it for the first time.
Then, just as quick as this new life had found me, COVID came, along
with an almost-simultaneous cancer diagnosis, and we were suddenly
social distancing and avoiding each other to be safe. Big padded
weekends at the boat became sort of scary, and we had to settle for 1:1
weekends, if that.
Still, the day before my surgery in August 2020 I snuck three friends
(at once!) onto the boat, and we spend the afternoon, and the evening,
and - thanks to a touchy motor that didn't want to re-start - part of
the night padded and out on the water. We had a BBQ dinner, and caught a
surprise fireworks show offshore, and just hung out. If you were a
reader of my blog back then, you may remember how scared I was that
complications during surgery might arise. While we didn't really discuss
it until the end, we approached that day on the boat like it could
be our last, and as we returned to the dock, I was in tears - it meant a
lot to me that my friends had been willing to drop everything to come
out and spend that time with me. I wasn't sure that I'd get another
chance to captain a little padded excursion, and if I wouldn't, I knew I
couldn't have asked for a better final cruise out on the water.
Fast forward - my surgery went better than expected, recovery breezed
along, COVID mostly came to an end, and things slowly started getting
back to normal. In 2021 and 2022 I began to host visitors again, and
while the crowded 'blowout weekends' of the past were no longer a thing,
we had a few fun weekends out on the water.
In the seven years since I launched the 'Luvs Boat' I've had visitors
from NYC, Boston, CT, DC, Miami, Texas, Chicago, Iowa, Mexico City, and
Europe, among other places. I've also assembled a core group of 'little'
friends I can call on a moment's notice, whether diaper-related or not.
Being invited to my first 'diaper party' was a shock of sorts - I'd
never met more than one ABDL at a time before I moved, outside of CAP -
but I've since attended several. 'Padded pours' wine tours, glamping
with the boys, semi-padded hikes with a little (I chafe, lol)... living
the padded life, and loving every minute of it...
Although it didn't come without a fair share of work...
Anyway, last week I hosted my fiftieth ABDL visitor to the #LuvsBoat.
50!
We didn't do a photoshoot - it didn't even occur to me until later that he was visitor #50. It was just a short little boat ride to reposition the Luvs Boat from one marina to another. But still... 50! But dude was chill AF - just the way we like them - so hoping to have him back to visit soon...
I realize that counting the number of visitors to the boat probably sounds obnoxious - braggart, much?
I do it for three reasons.
The first is because, over those nine years in ABDL Outcastatopia, I missed out on so many opportunities to meet people from our community. People who wanted to meet but had to swear me to secrecy, lest some daddy find out and ban them from the local parties. People who read my blog and loved the content, but could only tell me that in DMs because commenting where others could see it could cause trouble for them. Did you know that I reached one million blog views, with over a thousand blog entries, and dozens of 'guest entries', and four photo contests - all without a single person from my area appearing anywhere on my blog? Cliques ruin community. Moving away and suddenly getting to meet dozens of ABDLs... that says something to those who I missed out on, and who missed out on meeting me. (I've since had a number of people who were once afraid to meet me reach out to explain their side, or to ask questions, etc. - seeing photos of so many of you visit the boat has made some re-evaluate things, and I absolutely fucking love that.)
The second is because I know that many of you who read my blog are in a similar place as I was. The messages I receive, and results of surveys I've done and polls I do on Twitter, tells me that a large number of those in our community don't have very many - or, often, any - ABDL friends. Maybe it's because a 'clique' of daddies/boys (or mommies/girls?) have intentionally excluded you. Maybe nobody is setting up formal meets in your area yet. Or maybe you just have social anxiety and are afraid to accept invites that are being extended? Whatever the reason, I want to make it known that the same person who can go nine years without making a single local friend can move, find their fortunes changed, and eventually have a few dozen of them. Hang in there...
The third and final reason is because I love to host ABDLs for the first time. Whether it's a college student coming for padded little weekends, or friends visiting from afar, or even littles passing us by on the New York State Thruway and turning in for an afternoon - I love meeting people from our community, and I have a lot of lost time to make up for. While some will become regulars, and others will just be here for a few hours - maybe just to help me move a boat - and will head back along their journey, every visit I've had has been amazing - for me and, I hope, for my new friends. ABDLs have visited the 'Luvs Boat' and left with new friends they made here. Close friends. And, very likely, lifelong friends. People who have met on the Luvs Boat have gone on trips together... two have even gotten engaged. I'm so hoping that 2023 will bring more of the same...
If you live in upstate New York - think western, central, and the Southern Tier - and you'd like to visit, email me at abysitter@gmail.com.
Likewise, if you'll find yourself traveling through the area - I'm just an hour or two from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca, Corning, etc. - get in touch.
And, if a long weekend, or a few weekdays, is something you'd be interested in driving out for - same. There's even a direct shuttle from NYC, NJ, Toronto, and a number of other cities. If we're friends but haven't met yet, and you are staring down a summer of adventures, consider making a stop thru NY one of them.
If you're connected to a clique or companies who don't take particularly kindly to my stance on 18+ please be up front about that. I'd prefer to avoid those who actively blackball/ed me for obvious reasons, but I am definitely aware that sometimes innocent li'l ABies get caught up in the 'clique mentality.' If that's been you, open the conversation with that. Who knows what could happen. Honesty is the best policy. TIA, for that.
Anyway, whether you're close by enough to make a visit, or just prefer to enjoy the action on the website, I'm hoping for an amazing spring and summer with lots of fun, some new friends, and magical experiences.
If you're one of the fifty visitors we'd had so far, I can't thank you enough. Every single one has been amazing.
If you're not, and making it to where I am isn't outside of the realm of possibility, let me know.
Cwis
PS: Thanks, as always, for your support... I see every 'like' and 'retweet' on Twitter, and appreciate them all. Y'all rock...
